The Spiritual Wars
by Starrlette
Summary: Something is killing dogs all over La Push. An omen of some kind? A coincidence? And who is this strange girl who is the sole survivor of these attacks? What are her subconscious murmurings about? This is the tale of Jacob's life after Bella.


**I - DEAD DOGS DAMNED.**

_Somewhere deep in the woods, four very tall boys were searching..._

_Huh. Another one. That's the fourth dead dog we've found dead today._ These weren't wild dogs though; these were people's pets. When Sam had found the first one we just thought '_yeah, road accident.'_ When he had found the second, fluke, surely_. _But the fourth in one day alone...

"What is it, Jake?" it was Embry.

"Another one..."

"Oh geeze," he exhaled, "What the hell is doing this?"

"I have no clue." I bent down to pick up the dead dog. I was consumed with an overwhelming feeling, seeing the dog lying there. It was like we shared an unspoken bond, dogs and werewolves. Call it canine intuition. Needless to say, we could not leave the dog lying in the dewy grass in the middle of nowhere.

Embry and I took it over to a tree and buried it underneath. We stood there for a few short moments, both solemn (if you have any warm-hearted delusions that we stood there and shed tears for a random pup, I'm sorry to disappoint, but we were solemn as to the unknown reason why we had been to so many doggy funerals in one day).

With only a glance at each other, we knew what the other was thinking: we both had no freaking idea what the hell was going on. I followed Embry as he sighed and turned to leave. At the edge of the thick woods, we met up with Quil and Paul.

"We found another one." Embry said.

"That makes five today! Sam and Jared found another one not far up the creek." Quil said, a little too enthused like this was a game of scavenger hunt for the little kiddies.

"Any idea what's causing it?" Paul looked to me as if I were their unofficial leader in Sam's absence. I hated how they did that.

"No clue. All I know, is this has happened too often for it to be a coincidence."

*

According to Quil, Sam wanted to see us back at my house. Apparently, he had something to discuss. As I approached my front door, I was caught off guard by a distant wailing... a very high pitched screaming and remorseful sobbing. As my hand went to the doorknob it opened before I could turn it. Sam came onto the landing, closing the door behind him.

"What's going on in there?" Quil asked

"Yeah...you guys don't want to go in there just now. Jacob, Embry, did you guys find anything?" I thought Sam looked a little off, spooked maybe? But I didn't say anything.

"We found another dog." Embry offered.

"Really? And it was...just...dead? As in, nothing else done to it?"

"Ew man!" exclaimed Quil, "That's totally gross! What kind of sick world do we live in that someone would do stuff like that to a dog?" Quil received a slap on the back of the head from Paul. "Ow!"

"Will you can it? Why is your mind always in the gutter?"

Everyone turned to Sam who just had the most unimpressed look on his face. "Are you two done?" he said as if talking to little kids – which is a fair statement as far as Paul and Quil go.

"The reason I ask," Sam continued, "is because we found another dog today. But this one was different. It had been missing for only about half an hour before it showed up on the side of a freeway."

"What's so different about that?" I asked; sounded pretty usual to me, dogs always get run over on freeways.

"Look for yourself." Sam gestured towards a garbage bag in a 2 foot hole in the soil. We crowded around the shallow hole and looked in to see a dead Boxer Terrier lying on its side. The thing was, its legs were bound, its muzzle was gagged and, as if this wasn't precaution enough, it had a blindfold over its eyes.  
"What the hell..." I started.

"There's more." Sam continued. "The owners of this dog went searching for it. They were all killed. Well, nearly all."

"What?! How?" Embry voiced the questions on everyone's minds.

"We don't know. There was a woman and a little boy. They're both dead. But there was also a girl who has survived. She doesn't remember how they died. Billy says she's just in shock. She's in really bad shape."

"Where is she?" I asked, already guessing/dreading the answer.

"Uhh...in your house."

"WHAT?!" Me and Quil chorused together but for different reasons (Me: shock horror. Quil with a grin: there was a chick in the vicinity).

*

Ignoring Sam's warning, I raced into my house. What I saw was like something from a horror movie. Sam and Mrs Clearwater were carrying a struggling, screaming, clearly bruised and bleeding body into the back room that used to be my sister's. Dad cut me off saying "You better stay away from there, son."

"What's wrong with her?" I asked really interested to know the answer.

"She's just lost her mum and brother in one day." He then gave me one of those looks: the ones that implored me to fill in the gaps myself. I nodded, said I was tired and went to crash. I didn't care that the others were probably outside and that I was probably being rude. I just felt really drained and exhausted all of a sudden.

I didn't get much sleep that night. The girl in the bedroom next to me kept crying. Even when she was sleeping she'd be crying out things. The last thing I heard her say before I finally dozed off was "...not in the hole...!"


End file.
